Marie-Jeanne continued to fix him with a melting look of innocence. ‘This is what I told you, Commander. I commend you on your thoroughness because it establishes that what I told you was the truth.’

‘Thorough? Yes, Marie-Jeanne, I was thorough. Belatedly thorough. Before I left Simla I returned to the Grand. I insisted on having table ten pointed out to me and on interviewing the waiter who had personally served you throughout the meal.’

‘Oh, yes?’ said Marie-Jeanne without curiosity.

‘Table ten is right at the back of the dining room, screened from the rest of the diners by potted plants – a sort of little kala-juggah all on its own and conveniently close to the rear door. Your guest must have been a bit puzzled when you left the lunch table – but only a bit. Filled with anticipation of the best the house had to offer it may have been a moment or two before he realized that the pretty girl who returned and sat down opposite him was no longer the hard-headed bargainer but something younger and more pliable. One of your assistants? Identically dressed? Why should he complain? The waiter spoke very admiringly of her. It was discreetly done according to him and did not surprise him. It’s not unusual for him to preside over clandestine meetings of an amatory nature and his estimation that this was what was taking place was reinforced by the large tip he was given at the end of the meal. The lunch was a great success apparently and the pair rolled away through the back door a good deal the worse for copious amounts of food and two bottles of burgundy. The time was well past half-past two, nearer three, he says, and if you had indeed been present, Marie-Jeanne, there would have been no time to allow you to get out to Tara Devi in time to lie in wait and shoot Korsovsky. But you weren’t there, were you? You’d ridden a distance of five miles through the hills by then, and were setting up your ambush. Puffing halfheartedly at a couple of Black Cat cigarettes and firing two dumdum bullets into my friend’s heart.’

After a long silence Alice found her voice. ‘None of this matters any longer, Joe,’ she said. ‘Don’t you see? No one is going to want to hear such things – not any more – not even George Jardine. Why don’t we just acknowledge that you’re a very clever chap? I’m sure that’s what you want to hear. And why don’t we leave it at that?’

She made to rise. She seemed suddenly uneasy, eager to end the conversation.

‘Well, I want to hear it!’ Maisie broke in angrily. ‘The whole world ought to hear it! And it’s a crying shame if there’s no way two conniving, murdering creatures can be brought to justice because they’ve got the means and the nous to get themselves away over frontiers and over seas! Joe, are you just going to let them get away with it? I hate the thought that these two can just set up somewhere else and use the money they’ve got their hands on! If they’d stolen a gold watch you’d be down on them like a ton of bricks!’ she finished acidly.

‘I have to. There’s no way they can be pursued as things stand at the moment. India to the USA – that’s too far for British justice to stretch, I’m afraid.’

They were both looking at him with sly triumph. A sudden surge of anger and distress for Korsovsky shook him.

‘But Feodor was well known and much loved in America,’ he said. ‘It mightn’t be difficult to get the attention of those who would want to bring his killers to justice. Why the hell did you have to kill him, Alice? You could have just left Simla – you could have avoided him.’

Alice seemed not to know how to reply and it was Marie-Jeanne who answered. Laying a protective hand over Alice’s she said, ‘Alice told me last November that this man was to come to Simla. I don’t know how much of Alice’s history you know, Commander? Perhaps you are not aware that this Russian, this glamorous, much-fêted figure was, like most Russians as far as I can tell, a smooth, sentimental, self-serving…’ She paused and finally brought out the word explosively, ‘… shit! He met Alice when she was visiting the south of France under the guardianship of a family friend and managed to seduce her. And she a schoolgirl at the time. He promised marriage of course. He didn’t reveal that he was already married to a Russian lady who was living in New York. At the first sniff of a European war he went back there and wrote a letter to Alice telling her all. I have seen it. I know that this is true.’

‘That’s enough, Marie-Jeanne. He knows all this. I told him. He doesn’t need to know any more. We must go now.’

Alice’s voice was curt and Joe was again aware of a lapse of confidence. The awareness was followed by the sudden gratification which accompanies the realization that an opponent at cards is bluffing. There was one more thing that Alice wanted to remain concealed, something that could still do her damage if he guessed it. And he thought he had guessed her weakness.

‘No, stay a little longer. Here come our drinks,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Marie-Jeanne, do go on but remember that I met Korsovsky and formed a good opinion of him. It would take much to convince me that he would behave badly to the innocent young girl I’m sure Alice was in those days.’

Alice gave him a look of guarded suspicion but Marie-Jeanne was eager to continue. ‘You will see how misplaced was your good opinion, Commander! Alice didn’t tell him that by this time she realized she was pregnant. This was dealt with in a discreet clinic in France but the scars of this emotional and physical abuse have stayed with her unhealed – corrosive even. She hated him and for good reason. Alice has been more than kind to me, I owe her more than I can say and it was a small thing to repay some of what I owe by removing the cause of her torment. I was brought up to shoot – a skill in which I excelled my brothers though of course like my many other qualities it went unacknowledged.’

‘But not unremarked, Marie-Jeanne,’ said Joe. ‘I and many others were deceived by the marksmanship. We assumed that the killing had been done by a sniper of formidable talents.’

A slow smile of satisfaction acknowledged the compliment. ‘It was a man of just such talents who taught me. My father’s gamekeeper had been a soldier. He had fought the Rifis in Morocco and survived. I have a good eye and the target was not a difficult one,’ she finished modestly.

Maisie gave a snort of disgust. ‘Your target, as you call him, was a living man and your talent splattered his blood and flesh all over Joe. And I’d still like to know why. Because I’m not convinced by all this nonsense about doing it for poor little Alice.’

Marie-Jeanne looked stonily beyond Maisie, loftily refusing to acknowledge her presence let alone her right to speak out in criticism.

Undeterred, Maisie pressed on, a sudden gleam of understanding in her eyes. ‘You were doing it for yourself! Why does anyone kill? You were looking after number one! You knew this Russian was the love of her life… if he’d resurfaced in Simla who knows what might have happened? She told you she hated him but you’re clever – you weren’t deceived! Love? Hate? They’re very close. I’m guessing – and I think you guessed – she’d have had her bags packed and been off on the next boat with him! Leaving her old friend and protégée Marie-Jeanne to face the music. You love her, Marie-Jeanne, don’t you? She’s your whole life. There was no way you could risk letting her meet Korsovsky again! She never asked you to kill him for her. You did it for yourself!’

A slight flush on Marie-Jeanne’s pale cheeks was the only sign that Maisie’s darts had hit their target and she remained tight-lipped and scornful. Her silence seemed to incite Maisie to deeper fury. ‘Men! We’ve all wanted to line them up in our sights and pull the bloody trigger, haven’t we, love! Who were you really killing? Who were you really seeing when you squinted through your sights? Your father, your brothers?’ She paused for a second and added, ‘All the men who’ve ever looked at you and then looked hurriedly away again? You talk about it as though the act of killing were a gift, a selfless offering to this evil-minded little tart here – it wasn’t! There was nothing generous or even dutiful about it. You enjoyed it!’